Petshark: Talking Stick

Entries with the tag: la kings

As praise for the Kings is heaped onto the web, one of the explanations that keeps being presented is the acquisition of Jeff Carter. I agree, if he and Richards are such great buddies, playing together can’t hurt. Happy players play better.

Oh, they don’t mean that? They mean Carter made the top six so much better? Oh. Here I was getting used to the happy notion that teams know they need more than two lines to really do the job. I guess we’re back to only needing a top six. Please tell me GMs aren’t really thinking that way anymore. Please tell me it’s just confused people trying to make sense of the LA Kings suddenly getting their act together.

The last goal in the last minute (2 seconds shy anyway) of the last game on the last day of the regular NHL season was scored by Dan Boyle for the Sharks. The Sharks’ pride prize was winning four in a row to end the season against their nearest divisional rivals. In their last 10 of the season, they were 7-3-0. The prize in standings was to play the St. Louis Blues instead of the Vancouver Canucks, to which I had to say “wait, wait… WAIT!”

From the regular season record, the Sharks would have been better off playing Vancouver in the first round. They only beat Vancouver once this season, but they didn’t beat St. Louis at all.

The Kings were 3-1 against the Blues but only 2-2 against the Canucks. To me, that suggests that the Kings had greater playoff incentive to win last night.

The Sharks will once again wear black for the playoffs. Of course this disappoints me and I cannot understand why the team can’t get teal jerseys that they like as much as the black ones. I can see how the design could require more fabric or a heavier one, but figure it out already! It doesn’t matter if you like the style of the teal ones, if you’re not going to wear them. You can’t be Team Teal in black. It is ridiculous.

So new teal jerseys as comfy as the black ones, these are on my off-season wish list.

That word “ailing"alarmed me. For some reason it makes me think of a worsening condition instead of a regular injury. I’m sure that isn’t what he meant, but the situation is still disturbing. Douglas Murray stayed out with the last players to leave the ice, so I would guess he’ll be out tonight too.

According to David Pollak and Brodie Brazil, Douglas Murray won’t play tonight. According to Kevin Kurz, the Sharks’ lines will remain the same as the last game, leaving Ferriero, Handzus, Vandermeer and Winchester out. A prior tweet from Kurz says Jeff Carter will be out for the Kings.

Some time back, Randy or Drew mentioned Highlander during a game without saying the obvious thing, the thing you say when you mention Highlander: “There can be only one.” No, I think he said something about the quickening. I don’t think it was a game against the Kings but a discussion of Jonathan Quick is the obvious next step.

Does Quick get stronger with every team he beats? There is every reason to suppose he does, like any hockey player, gain confidence with each win. That powerful confidence boost comes even if it’s a lucky bounce of a win, like a random shard of glass coming down and chopping off the K’immie’s head. (For the uninitiated, that’s an evil Immie, stemming from the fact that most evil immortals had names starting with a “k” sound, as in “King.”) That’s why you thank the post that helped out. You are glad for the win no matter how you get it.

One of the things that stuck out for me in the Sharks’ Tuesday loss to Minnesota was how many times Niemi got run into or buried under bodies. He seems like a sturdy fellow but that has to be kind of tough on a goalie. That’s a special kind of failure to defend. That was just one symptom of breakdowns from the Sharks. There were enough such to have McLellan shuffling the lines and looking very cross. I just hope Niemi didn’t get banged up, bent wrong or otherwise harmed under there.

Last night, the California NHL teams with new coaches faced off. The game went to a shootout. I think this could be good news for Sharks fans, because unless both the Kings and the Ducks have already made enormous strides with their new coaches, it looks like they are not much changed from the state of terrible that got their previous coaches fired. I don’t know how many people expected dramatic improvement, especially from the Kings since their new coach just arrived the day before. Coaches aside, these are mostly the same teams that suddenly failed to perform for coaches they did pretty well with last season.

I am not above wanting our team’s opponents to play badly. Hockey players may be proud enough to prefer to win a good game instead of an uneven one, but I don’t have any compunctions about being greedy for points no matter who the Sharks get them from. What about that idea that the Sharks play better against tougher opponents? Throw it out. What about the fact that the Sharks played better on the road? Toss it. What about the Sharks playing better in the [fill in the blank] period and falling down in the others? Forget it. Starting from zero is the best approach after a gluttonous victory like we saw Wednesday. That game against Tampa Bay broke with all the Sharks’ trends this season, including being the fourth home win in a row.

Todd McLellan wanted a good start against the Predators, a good first period from the Sharks. He got one. I guess he phrased his wish incorrectly because the genie forgot to include a good finish with that good start. Apparently McLellan isn’t as upset about Saturday’s loss as he was about Thursday’s win:

“... I thought we had a much better game, we just didn’t win. There was about a 10-minute lull in the third period where we weren’t our best. But, sometimes we don’t give enough credit to the other team… They were better for that 10 and 12 minutes, and we didn’t stop them.

“... The whole was better than it was two nights earlier.” -Shark Talk

When the game ended, I felt the same way, and wasn’t sure why. Maybe I was still drunk from the Flyers win earlier. Or maybe it’s the surgeon’s logic: the operation was a success, but the patient died.